The Theatre of the Oppressed in Practice Today

An Introduction to the Work and Principles of Augusto Boal

Ali Campbell

• Publisher: Methuen Drama
• Year: 2025
• Edition: 2
• eBook ISBN:
  9781350445048
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Film & Video

How has the work and legacy of Augusto Boal's Theatre of the Oppressed been interpreted and practised around the world? What does it look like in different working contexts? The second edition of this book provides an accessible introduction to the political and artistic principles Boal's techniques are founded on, tracking exemplary practice from around the globe.

Using detailed contemporary case histories, theatre artist, scholar and activist Ali Campbell demonstrates how the underlying principles of Boal's practice are today enacted in the work of - among others - an urban network (Theatre of the Oppressed NYC), a rural and developmental theatre organisation (Jana Sanskriti, West Bengal), Boal's original company CTO Rio (Brazil), and a theatre-based group led by learning-disabled adults in the UK (The Lawnmowers Independent Theatre Company). The book concludes with a series of conversations between Campbell and international exponents of the work, envisioning futures for the Theatre of the Oppressed in the shifting political, educational and artistic contexts of the 21st century.

This second edition includes:
- A new foreword by Professor Caoimhe McAvinchey
- An additional conversation in Part 3 with artist and activist Tony Cealy
- A new Part 4, featuring creative encounters with groups of academics, artists, Indigenous activists and community multipliers from across the Amazonas region of Brazil
- A new Part 5, featuring the Indigenous academic and Kuringa (Joker) Annie Martins, who vividly addresses the challenges all practitioners face as they seek to decolonise their work

Table of contents

• Cover
• Halftitle page
• Series page
• Title page
• Copyright page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Illustrations
• Acknowledgements
• Foreword
• Author’s Introduction To The Second Edition
• PART ONE Principles in Practice
• Prologue
• Introduction: About Augusto Boal and the Aims of This Book
• Chapter 1 What Is Forum and How Does It Work?
• Chapter 2 Teaching and Training
• Chapter 3 How Do We Adapt Forum?
• Chapter 4 Collaboration
• Chapter 5 Ten Top Tips
• PART TWO Companies and Conversations
• Introduction: How These Four Studies Were Created and Why
• Jana Sanskriti: Field Work
• Theatre of the Oppressed NYC (TONYC): ‘Radically Unsentimental’
• The Lawnmowers Independent Theatre Company: ‘Nurses Jump In. Teachers Don’t’
• CTO Rio: ‘Given a Recipe, You Can Go and Do’
• PART THREE Conversations
• Introduction: About the People You Will Hear fromin This Section
• Angela El Zeind
• Jennifer Little
• Bárbara Santos
• Osmar Araujo
• Julian Boal
• ‘From Damascus’
• Tony Cealy
• PART FOURFrame Throwing in Amazonas
• PART FIVE Annie’s Story
• Glossary
• Suggested Reading
• Index